Wanted to give an update now that the original ducks are 5 weeks old today and the 2nd round are now 1 week old.
It’s been a bit of a learning curve.
I originally ordered 8 ducks knowing I wanted to settle on about 3-6 females w/ no drakes. i ordered them from my local feed store and 3 died in transit to them and one had neuro issues right away and died first night. The other 4 seemed to be doing fine. Turned out that one was
significantly smaller than the other 3 and was certainly a runt. Had some issues keeping up but eventually found her legs and even though small, still kept up. Around 10 days-2 weeks old I moved them outside to my small decorative pond and still in the brooder at night. At 4 weeks, I moved them down to their permanent home/creek and they’ve been loving life since.
I did, sadly, lose the runt though during a rain storm. Just as I suspected, the ducks thought it would be a wise idea to get in a raging rapid creek and though I walked over a mile looking, couldn’t find her. I’m hoping once fully grown they either smarten up or get stronger to fight a current like that enough to get out immediately. 1 went about 100 feet down creek (but could have been because staying with other). Haven’t had that issue again.
See pics from tonight (ignore the burn pile that needs to go).
As for the new 1 week old ducklings, I may need a bit of advice. Starting at day 4, I let them have some pond time. Turns out they loved it so much they never wanted to leave. It being Texas and 95 outside, I’ve moved to just letting them stay outside all day with the pond for water and their feeder next door. No real predators though a hawk might get them (but tons of cover so doubtful). Anyways- lost one today while I was cleaning the pond filter. The ducks are extremely skittish and I think it had a heart attack. Or possibly drowned? I saw it start ducking its head to water oddly, so I swooped it out and it laid there for a few seconds then went to its back. I tried small compressions to its chest and belly and even blew softly in nostrils and mouth but couldn’t revive it. :-(
Anyways- Is it ok for that much pond time. From 7am-8pm I’d say they’re in that water 80-90% of the day. They seem happier and much healthier than the last set of ducklings though; albeit more skittish. Pics show their night and day setups.
Last few pics are my chickens and ducks together. The chickens eat from their feeder a lot. The ducks give them space but no aggression from anyone. I have not seen the ducks eat from this new feeder one time in the week they’ve been down there. Not sure if they’re just free ranging and fine with that, or if they’re eating when I’m not around. But they can see the chickens using the feeder- so hopefully they’re not too dumb to figure it out vs a ground feeder.
And a bonus pic of a beautiful yellow oyster mushroom from the rain we’ve been having.
As I said- some ups and downs and learning curve. They’re not high maintenance at all - It’s just the free range lifestyle. Losing one sucks but I’m fully aware of it happening.
One good thing of note:
They coop themselves up every night. Before the chickens, even. Automatic door. I haven’t had to herd them one time to go home. Every. Night. For ~10-12 nights now.
Now my damned chickens, on the other hand, all want to roost on the wrought iron fence and I have to manually shove them in the coop even with my useless automatic door. That’s been a thing for 3 months now :/
I did start their first two days with a fence around the coop, so they’d learn their food (and water at time) and home was there. So maybe that’s good advice or maybe im just lucky as hell. Either way- that’s been a godsend. Because they’re very skittish around me and keep their distance or go in water when im around. I try to give them snacks but they don’t get close enough to eat them. I’ll win their hearts eventually- any advice there?